Levitekies
Passionate and talented team of like-minded and solution driven professionals.
David Cramer
Co-Founder
Director of Business Development
Washington State University, MS in Mechanical Engineering - 2000
David's 20+ years of experience in Mechanical Engineering, CAD, and Software Development enabled him to design and implement data translation, design automation, business process automation, system integration, and data migration solutions. This in-depth understanding then served as a foundation for his passion- developing a sales pipeline for professional services through sales, marketing, customer management and partner channel development. He is constantly exploring opportunities for innovation with trusted advisers. He likes outdoor activities with his family year-round and enjoys being a soccer coach.
What are three words to describe Levitek?
Fun. Challenging. Family.
What do you like most about Levitek?
Our relationship with our customers and partners, my partnership with Rishi, and working with our Levitekies.
What drew you to Levitek originally and how has Levitek changed since?
Rishi and I had a vision of creating a solution oriented company dedicated to solving real-world problems. We have achieved a better understanding of our customer’s and partner’s needs; this understanding has guided us to be more focused on enabling our delivery team than ever before.
How has Levitek helped you in your career development?
Project and people management skills, channel development, sales tactics, marketing and business process.
What have you gained from working at Levitek?
More experience with negotiations, managing a distributed, diverse, multi-disciplined team, learned more about customer service and gained tremendous confidence and work satisfaction.
Co-Founder
Director of Professional Services
Washington State University, MS in Mechanical Engineering - 2006
Rishi has been developing software and managing projects since 2001. After spending the initial years in product development for CAD and Virtual Reality applications he transitioned to managing over 75+ projects for a wide range of clients in the design manufacturing industry. At Levitek he splits his time primarily between project management and product development. He especially enjoys brainstorming on strategic planning, developing new business models and offerings to help drive growth at Levitek. He is adventurous and loves challenges. He enjoys outdoor experiences with his family and being a cricket coach to his son.
What are three words to describe Levitek?
Diverse. Efficient. Transparent.
What do you like most about Levitek?
Levitek is a performance driven organization that puts work ethic at the forefront and Levitekies are the go-getters.
What drew you to Levitek originally and how has Levitek changed since?
A causal discussion between me and David lead us to - "Explore. Dream. Discover." We realized that logic is limiting but unconventional ideas can change things. Levitek became a mandatory journey to take. Our combined passion, strengths and skills has grown immensely since.
How has Levitek helped you in your career development?
There is a thin line between being a visionary and delusional. Levitek proved that I have it in me and it happened at the right time in my career.
What have you gained from working at Levitek?
Confidence to see beyond, set new goals and believe that it is achievable. Technical capabilities to create new avenues to help this value-adding venture succeed.
Hrishikesh Joshi
Frank Taylor
Principal Consultant
Washington State University, MS in Mechanical Engineering - 2001
Frank interacts with our customers to solve complex problems and assist in delivering data migration solutions. With 15+ years’ experience in product development and enterprise software systems, his passion for delivering quality solutions and ability to adapt to ever-changing requirements makes him a valuable asset to our technical solutions team. Before joining Levitek, his most interesting job was mechanical design of rugged laptop computers (although working in the oil fields of Alaska and designing 3D video cameras also rank near the top). He enjoys spending time with his family, hiking, singing, playing guitar and paddle sports.
What are three words to describe Levitek?
Agile. Innovative. Team. (can I add Awesome?)
What do you like most about Levitek?
The leadership team has their priorities straight. We improve the value of what we do through developing tools and processes that ensure our work is done efficiently with high quality results. We take care of our customers and we take care of each other.
What drew you to Levitek originally and how has Levitek changed since?
Having known David and Rishi for years, I was excited at the opportunity to collaborate with them in creating something new. After learning about the business plan and knowing Rishi’s and David’s work ethic and capabilities, I felt sure this would be a success. So far, it has! We have delivered wins for numerous customers, developed some fantastic tools, created and strengthened business partnerships, and grown our business.
How has Levitek helped you in your career development?
On the personal side, it has been rewarding to help leaders in design and manufacturing get to the next level in their design data management. On the technical side, I’ve gained a greater knowledge of (and respect for) the Windchill system, as well as improved my SQL skills and contributed to some fantastic data migration software.
What have you gained from working at Levitek?
Being part of Levitek has allowed me to use my experience and talents in ways that supports the whole company. There is a keen sense of ownership here that I have not experienced elsewhere. I have gained personal experience with the fact that a small number of people can make a big difference!
Chandrashekhar Raut
Sr. PLM Consultant
University of Mumbai, India, BS of Engineering: IT 2010
Currently pursuing MTech at BITS Pilani.
Shekhar is a software engineer and has ample work experience in PLM ecosystem in the manufacturing and Hi-Tech industries. As a Windchill PLM expert, he deals with complex Windchill implementations, upgrades, migrations and integration with other applications. He believes in the thought ‘Jack of many trades while mastering some’ - having developed software around various PLM / PDM and CAD applications: AGILE, ARAS, Inventor Vault, CREO J-Link, WWGM toolkit etc. He likes to work hard and party harder or relax at home when he is not.
What are three words to describe Levitek?
Rishi, David, Frank, the trinity! Levitek- Awesome, Boundless, Growth.
What do you like most about Levitek?
Levitek leadership believe in their team giving them confidence that they can deliver. At Levitek everyone is passionate and transfusing energy to one another.
What drew you to Levitek originally and how has Levitek changed since?
At Levitek your efforts are valued and appreciated. There is an exchange of ideas rather than imposition of ideas. That gives a sense of responsibility to work for and sense of accomplishment when you see the outcome. This, drew me to Levitek. Before officially coming on-board as a Levitekie, I had worked for Levitek as an offshore consultant and I closely observed its growth. I can see team's constant efforts and sincerity to make Levitek a much bigger success.
How has Levitek helped you in your career development?
At Levitek I got opportunities to work on many challenging projects. Levitek trusted me with new technologies, even when I had no or limited exposure to some of them. This helped me grow as a professional - in gaining expertise and diverse knowledge.
What have you gained from working at Levitek?
I got to interact and work closely with seasoned professionals and watch them practice their craft with finesse. It was a tremendous learning experience for me early in my career. I learned a great deal about soft skills- work and time management, interaction and people skills, and realized how important they are along with technical capabilities.
Brandon Ackerman
Applications Engineer
Brigham Young University, BS in Mechanical Engineering- 2015
Brandon earned a degree in Mechanical Engineering with an emphasis in computer programming. He had an internship and work experience in the food processing equipment industry before joining Levitek as a Migration Engineer in June 2016. Since then, Brandon has performed data migrations between numerous data management systems. His tasks include mapping objects and attributes between systems, testing software tools, performing test migrations, verifying and validating migrated data, and performing final migrations. A few random facts about this valuable team member: Brandon is 6’ 5”tall, he played electric guitar in a band in college and he spent a few years in Trinidad and Tobago. He also enjoys playing basketball and golf, going to the park with his kids and watching movies.
What are three words to describe Levitek?
Helpful. Hard Working (that still only counts as one). Creative.
What do you like most about Levitek?
I enjoy the work atmosphere, and that leadership encourages creative and innovative thinking. Even bad ideas are given an opportunity.
What drew you to Levitek originally and how has Levitek changed since?
From the outside, Levitek looked like a young company that would allow employees room to grow and develop. It looked like I’d get an opportunity to learn new things, and to develop skills that I was interested in, such as programming. I was completely right about these things, though my expectations fell far short of the reality. Every project is different, so every day I come into work looks slightly different than the day before. I am able to learn something new nearly every day, and have a great team that is willing to assist me in any way necessary.
How has Levitek helped you in your career development?
I have learned that improving problem solving skills and learning to manage time are just as important as technical skills. In some cases they are more important.
What have you gained from working at Levitek?
Team members at Levitek have given me opportunities to learn teamwork, which is difficult to learn in a classroom. The biggest factor in this has been learning to create a balance between independence and collaboration.
Jacob Brown
Migration Engineer
M.S. in Computational Science in Visualization& Computer Graphics- 2017
B.S. in Computer Science in Mathematics- 2016
Central Washington University - Ellensburg, WA
While in college, Jacob was a Computer Science tutor. During the summer of 2017, he had an internship at Pacific Northwest National Laboratories and helped to create risk detection software for zoonotic diseases. That fall, he went on to finish his Master of Science, majoring in Computational Science with a focus in Data Visualization. He joined Levitek in January 2018. A few things Jacob loves to do, are charity races, play Dungeons and Dragons and work on one of the books he’s writing.
What are three words to describe Levitek?
Quality. Self-Oriented. Relaible.
What do you like most about Levitek?
There is a deep friendship rooted in the foundation of this company. This speaks of trust and understanding between coworkers and friends. It’s a great feeling to work with talented individuals, who are quick to share a smile.
What drew you to Levitek originally and how has Levitek changed since?
The first time I met David and Frank, they took me out to lunch. It was such a pleasant experience to get to know one another in that setting. It felt personal and inviting. Most companies aren’t so… passionate about getting a new employee. Since I joined Levitek, the company has become more structured and refined.
How has Levitek helped you in your career development?
Listening and participating with multiple clients is interesting. The more projects I work on, the more intuition I have about what to do and what the client expects. I imagine a day soon, to where I’ll be able to predict future problems and solve them beforehand. Getting experience with numerous databases and writing SQL queries is a boon, that will only help my career.
What have you gained from working at Levitek?
Connections and growing friendships. Levitek is bright with possibilities and the growing technical capabilities of the company is exciting to behold.
Extended Team
Levitek has also developed a network of onshore and offshore resources. This network enables Levitek to quickly scale to complete multiple projects in parallel. Our extended team specializes in Windchill, PDM Pro, .NET applications, and Team-center. Our capabilities are highlighted by our Work-group PDM Migration data center. This blended, global team works around the clock to directly support our customers in North America and abroad ensuring quality while minimizing cost and time to delivery.
Charles DeChenne
Lead Software Architect
Washington State University, MS in Mechanical Engineering - 2003
The depth of knowledge required to develop software is so staggering and extensive that there are very few people capable of delivering real-world solutions in an above average capacity. When you add his experience and creativity to his extensive knowledge, it is clear why Charles simply excels. As an end-user, developer, and architect, he has the rare ability to understand the users’ needs and, with little oversight, design, develop, and refine a solution that is easy to use, functional, extendable, and aesthetic. His solutions embody the Levitek software development principles: to enable our end-users to solve complex problems quickly by providing easy to learn and use solutions.
Rupali Joshi
Operations Manager
Sir J. J. College of Architecture - India, BS in Architecture - 1999
Rupali is creative and efficient with exceptional task management abilities. At Levitek, she helps with general office administration, human resources, finances, and marketing. She is self-motivated, extremely professional, and has a knack for working well with people. As a valued resource from the inception of Levitek, she has made it a personal goal to see Levitek succeed and evolve. Given her professional domain in Architecture + Interior Design and being an entrepreneur herself, she believes that Levitek provides her an opportunity to explore & utilize her known/unknown skills. She is workaholic but nothing satisfies her more than being a mother to her son and contributing to his creative, academic and social growth, the ultimate project!